Chapter 103 - The Tournament

With a deep sigh, Rynold stared into the empty, dull room.

'Man, this place is really depressing, huh?' he thought as he blinked with an empty look on his face. 'On the other hand, there are at least some things that I learned.'

Rynold began remembering the things that he's noticed so far, but there were some glaring spaces in between his theories.

'Hmm... The biggest problems right now are the King and Queen,' Rynold started with the most obvious thing he noticed.

'The guards weren't even looking at the King and Queen as they went in to come to get me. That's some next level shit that I don't even want to unwrap.'

It was clear that the guards had followed after the actions and traits of the King and Queen pair. It was problematic. To that degree where even the guards were corrupt, Rynold could tell that the oppression of the common folk was no big deal.

Rynold sighed thinking about that. It was practically as depressing as the room he was in.

'Well, the tournament thing was a neat surprise, but somehow uncharacteristic,' Rynold caught on something that was a bit out of place.

'Sure, I get the idea of having a colosseum. But, why the hell would they have something like that in a place where they are in power? That just doesn't make sense.'

Because the ruling power had complete control over the city-state, Rynold thought that having a tournament would be unnecessary.

It was the logical explanation of a dictatorship over a small population of people.

Since the dictators (or the King and Queen in this case) had complete control, they technically didn't have to do anything to make the quality of life any better.

Apart from military and security measures so that the people won't riot, the King and Queen didn't really have to have a colosseum and a tournament.

'Anyway,' Rynold shook that train of thought that led to nowhere. 'The creatures that they've got locked down here is no joke.'

He recalled the sounds of the creatures made from behind their closed, concrete doors. Naturally, since the creatures were audible, Rynold was smart not to make any noises.

'I think...,' Rynold formed another thought, 'The creatures that they've got down here are monsters that I would need to fight. I assume that whoever managed to wrangle these creatures saw the Red Rain as a marketable opportunity.'

By the end of that sentence, Rynold slammed his fist to the wall he was leaning on. His face formed an angry expression that he had rarely brought out.

'Whoever thought that they could make money from capturing creatures are scum that shouldn't walk this earth,' Rynold clicked his tongue in disappointment.

'The ghouls turned from humans into monsters... Shouldn't they be doing the right thing by ending their suffering? Why the hell would people think that they could make money from other's pain?'

There were no supposed theories as to what exactly happened to the consciousness of those who turned. But, Rynold always thought that they should end their lives whenever they did turn.

Rynold scoffed, 'I never imagined that killing would be justice now...'

With a deep sigh, Rynold opened his inventory and pulled out an Accord Sphere.

He immediately activated the small sphere and instructed it to scan the area. Axiom, the yellow Accord Sphere used for support and intelligence, was the best Accord Sphere for scouting the area.

The small, yellow sphere hummed in a low decibel and flew up.

Luckily, there were small crevices that gave the room some ambient lighting that was small enough for Axiom to pass through.

As the Axiom Sphere flew itself onto the small gap near the ceiling of the room, Rynold was able to learn a few things. Well, it was more of one big thing.

'What's happening to the scanners? The hell?'

Rynold was able to optimize the information that was being transmitted to him from Axiom to his brain. It was near instant and always provided him with actual information that he was able to work with.

But, for some reason, the information that was being relayed to him was now different.

'Scan failed? What the hell is happening?' Rynold stared at the gap that Axiom passed through before suddenly realizing, 'Shit, something's interfering. They must've placed something that disturbs Mana fluctuations into the building foundation.'

He read in a book somewhere back home that showed a material capable of doing this exact situation. It bothered him that, of all the places he'd find that material, Rynold found it here.

'Damn it.'

Rynold was able to maintain contact with Axiom, but anything other than that was useless. At best, he was just able to see whoever passed through the hallway just outside his cage.

Instructing the Accord Sphere back to the palm of his hand, Rynold sighed. There really was nothing else he could do here. He had to admit that he already missed his workshop.

Seconds passed. Then, minutes. Then, hours.

Rynold could tell that he was starting to go insane. Spending time in isolation and not doing anything, it was inevitable.

It would've been different if he were keeping busy by doing something else. But, there could only be so much a person could do alone.

"Rynold? You there?" Leo's voice suddenly came from outside the concrete door.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the rat bastard that decided to call me his 'champion.' What the hell do you want?" Rynold was audibly pissed at Leo.

"I wouldn't be able to get you here if I didn't lie," Leo said in defense as he looked to his sides, checking if someone was listening to their conversation.

Rynold clicked his tongue in frustration. "Cut the bullshit, man. What do you want? Certainly, the heir to the throne isn't here to just chit chat."

"Fine, fine," Leo spurred on, "I'll start from the very beginning, then.

The colosseum tournament wasn't there from the start. My parents made it up for no apparent reason. Basically, what they said was to find someone and have them compete in the tournament as our 'champions.' I never really knew what that meant, though."

Rynold stood up and walked towards the door. "And, by "us" you mean...?"

"The other people in the family," Leo explained, "You know, cousins, siblings, and others."

"Right," Rynold was somewhat skeptical, "So, none of you ever thought why your parents decided to do this? You just said, 'fuck it,' and decided to follow instructions without even thinking?"

"Well," Leo answered, "The prize is pretty big if our champions won the whole tournament. Whoever won will become the next in line for the throne."

Rynold's eyes widened. Not that Leo could see it behind the concrete door.

"So, technically, you're not even the heir to the throne right now? You're just a contestant to the world's most fucked up game show?"

Leo was caught off-guard by Rynold's response. Stuttering, he answered, "I- I mean, if you want to be technical about it. I guess you could put it that way."

With yet another deep sigh, Rynold could be seen as the most frustrated he's ever been.

"What's the plan then?" Rynold asked, "You can't honestly expect me to win the whole thing, right? There's no way I can stand up to these guys.

I haven't even killed someone before, and now you're asking me to go through this entire tournament for you? What the hell, man! If you told me this from the start, Oliver would've been the better choice for the job."

For a few seconds, Leo was quiet, speechless. He didn't know what to say because of how accurate Rynold's descriptions were. It wasn't a simple mission that he had gotten Rynold to agree to, but it was a whole obstacle course of enemies and challenges he had to go through along the way.

"Look, whatever it is your plan is, you need to do better," Rynold spoke in a sincere voice, "Don't think for a second that winning the tournament would automatically finish this. It's not that simple. It can't be that simple."

Rynold returned to the same spot where he was sitting before.

He had finished saying his piece, warning Leo of the dangers ahead. Since Rynold only needed to fight, there wasn't much else he could do aside from it to help Leo out.

Regardless, Leo reconsidered his options and left Rynold to his own devices. From here on out, he can't rely on Rynold to formulate a plan for the complete removal of his own family. Leo knew that Rynold was the outsider. So, it was up to him to figure things out.

Rynold, on the other hand, knew the stake of the battles ahead. It wasn't going to be smooth sailing at all, especially if he had to kill other people as well.

He'd beaten and killed off monsters before, but other humans with living, breathing consciousness was an entirely different thing.